A Light on the Horizon – November 29, 2020, The First Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 40:1-11, Mark 1:1-8
November 29, 2020

This seems a very fitting sermon title for the year 2020.  “A Light on the Horizon.”  We are so ready for a new year, after the tumultuous year this has been!  We are hoping for “a light on the horizon!”  Aren’t we?

That’s also a very fitting metaphor for the start of this Advent season.  Because Advent is a time of anticipation, a time when we wait expectantly for the coming of the Christmas celebration.  And it recalls a time when the world was awaiting the coming of Christ.

My understanding is that there was an expectancy in the world.  The world was anticipating this event.  And I’m not just talking about the people in the Jewish world, with all their prophecies.  I understand there were signs and portents in other lands and cultures.

That’s what the story of the Maji represents.  The “Wise Men,” were from another country, from another religion, probably Zoroastrianism, a religion that relied heavily on astrology.  (Maybe you remember that from your High School History class!)  And these “kings,” who watched the heavens all the time, saw something there that told of a new king in Israel.  And whatever they saw, was so monumental that they had to go and see for themselves!  They had to go and be a part of it!  There was an expectancy in the world, that something was about to happen!

In the beginning of John’s Gospel, often called “the prologue,” he said, “The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world.”  And if that word “everyone” wasn’t enough to describe the universal nature of what God was doing, John went on to say this.  “He came to his own home and his own people received him not.  But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”

The other part of this metaphor is that the light of Jesus came to a darkened world.  Think about it. The people of that time were under Roman occupation.  And while Rome was the height of civilization at that time, and gave the world great advances in art, architecture, science, and roads, the Romans also subjugated the people they conquered.  They put people under harsh oppression.  They crushed rebellions ruthlessly.  They enslaved people.  Their soldiers were everywhere.  We need only look to Matthew’s Gospel to find the sad story of the slaughter of the children by king Herod.

It could well be said that those were “dark times.”  And the Good News was then, and always has been, that the light shines in the darkness.  History tells us that the church has always grown during times of oppression.  The “light in darkness” metaphor has been so strong.  And on the other hand, history also shows us that in times of prosperity and ease, the church has grown “soft.”

Throughout history, when life has been hard, people have been called to take a serious look at what they truly believe.  And in those times, the light has shined more brightly in the darkness.  As John wrote of Jesus, “In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never conquered it.”

Advent celebrates that that light was on the horizon!  And into that darkness, came a man who John said, “was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.”  Into that darkness came a voice prophesied by Isaiah some 700 years before.  The voice cried “In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord!  We read those words in both our scriptures for today.  It was the prophecy and the fulfilment of the prophecy of the coming of John the Baptist.

I want you to notice something.  I want you to notice that the Gospel writers and the Bible translators over the years have placed the comma in that sentence in a slightly different location than Isaiah did.  In Isaiah it says, “A voice cries, ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord!’”  In other words, “Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness.”  That makes perfect sense when you look at the next sentence.  “Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”  The Hebrew writings are full of those little two verse repetitions just like that.

Well, in the Gospels, the writers placed that comma a little bit later.  They quote that passage by saying, “A voice cries in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord!’”  The voice is crying in the wilderness, you see.  They wanted to emphasize the story of John, and how he preached his message out in the desert.  And Mark, in his Gospel even throws in a little Malachi for good measure!  “Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare the way.”  That comes from Malachi 3.  And those two words “my messenger” in Hebrew are the word “Malachi” – the title of that book.  That’s what that book is about, as it leads us from the Old to the New Testament.

But Isaiah and the Gospel writers are really saying the same thing.  They’re both telling us about John.  Whether the voice is “crying in the wilderness,” or whether the voice says to “prepare in the wilderness,” it’s still the wilderness where the way of the Lord is to be prepared.  I hope you see that!  And “the wilderness” is seen as the same kind of image as “the darkness,” the darkness into which the light of Jesus shined.

So, with John, the idea is that something was about to happen.  For hundreds of years, it had been prophesied that something was going to happen.  And John the Baptist was giving them hope that what was going to happen would be happening soon!  And it was into their darkened world, into their wilderness, into their world of oppression and subjugation and despair, that a light was about to shine.  It was just over the horizon!

I think there’s one more fitting part of this metaphor, especially for us, this year.  We are living in unprecedented times.  Maybe we’ve worn that word out a little bit.  But we are.  These times are unprecedented!  And these times are dark for many.  This pandemic has caused unemployment, uncertainty, despair, death, mourning, separation, fear, and a disruption of life that many of us have never experienced!

It makes me wonder what it must have been like a hundred years ago when this happened before, when there was no internet, no instantaneous communication or spread of information, when there were far worse sanitary conditions, and when the knowledge and response of the medical community was much less than ours!  In the two plus years of the Spanish Flu, it has been estimated that somewhere between 50 and 100 million people died worldwide!  It’s almost impossible to conceive of those numbers!

Thankfully, we have a lot more going for us this time around.  Still, this is our version of those dark times.  And I think they remind us of the darkness of the world into which Jesus was born.  And we are looking forward to, we are longing for, the new year.  It’s got to be better than the old one!  Right?  With the psalmist we’re crying, “How long, Oh Lord?”

Advent tells us to “Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness!”  “Behold I send my messenger before you to prepare the way.”  Advent tells us that there is a light on the horizon!  “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never conquered it!”

Prayer

Eternal God, help us to know that you are truly with us, no matter the circumstances of our lives.  Help us to know better this Advent season, the true light that has come into this world.  May we receive the Christ child once again as his light has dawned on our lives.  For we pray in his name, Amen.